


Fleeting Wishes

by AppleSoda



Series: Data and Dreams [2]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, I GUESS IM JUST GOING TO WRITE OUT A DREAM DROP DISTANCE SCENARIO FOR KAIRI NOW, KH3 spoilers, Oops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2020-04-23 02:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19141927
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AppleSoda/pseuds/AppleSoda
Summary: The Mark of Mastery exam takes Kairi to another version of Agrabah, where Princess Jasmine is searching for a lost treasure. She enlists the keyblade wielder’s help, only for the two of them to find that someone unexpected is looking for the Genie’s lamp





	1. Chapter 1

The boiling head of the desert, which seemed like it seared itself into the deepest recesses of Kairi’s memory. So much so that even if she had gotten out and gotten somewhere colder, the sun and sand would linger on her mind. Yet despite the unrelenting temperatures, the city of Agrabah was a remarkably beautiful one. Overhead, the palace, with its golden rounded dome gleaming in the daytime sun, overlooked everything else within sight. Though the buildings were constructed of stones the sandy brown colors of the desert, there wasn’t a corner she could turn and not see intricately woven carpets hanging on laundry lines or brightly colored pottery lined up neatly in a shopkeeper’s stall.

 

“I don’t think even the Islands in midsummer were this bad…” Peeking out from underneath an awning, she checekd a road sign that pointed ways forward into the city, towards the palace, and the Grand Agrabah bazaar.

 

That meant that Jasmine was there. Which also meant possibly seeing the tiger that supposedly followed the other Princess of Heart around. Or the palace she lived in, or the fact that magical genies could grant three wishes to the lucky few that found their lamps.

 

In a place like that, no one could possibly ever want to yearn for a place more adventurous. But then, looking for adventure was what had gotten her and her friends into trouble in the first place.

 

“Well, no use complaining about it now. And we’re not the only ones to have to deal with a desert here, are we?” Kairi said to her Dream-Eaters, but more to herself than anything else.

 

Picking up her pace, she started towards the marketplace, if only to find something to stave off the heat for a little.

 

It hadn’t been the easiest, to tell what was true and what was a Dream.Even in places where the sun and the sand looked to make things inhospitable, people found a way to thrive. That had been more amazing than any of the magical relics that Kairi had discovered, from the glowing warmth of Traverse Town to the azure shorelines of Atlantica. All around Kairi were secrets that looked to not only be locked away, but behind doors that were continuously shifting about. Master Yen Sid had said that the trials of a Keyblade wielder tested more than strength. And true enough, more than strength had been needed in figuring out everything in the past and that lay ahead.

 

“Don’t knock anything over, okay?” She said to the seal quietly. “We don’t want to make any trouble that’s not already in the cards.” Fluffing its soft fur, Kairi couldn’t help but smile as the little creature made a pleased squeak, and toddled along by her side.

 

“STOP! THIEF!” a sharp male voice barked out from out in the distance as a burly guard clad in a uniform and gesturing with a sword ran into view.

 

The calls of other guardsmen followed suit. Immediately, Kairi dropped the piece of fruit she was holding in alarm, and jumped back.Her hair stood on end as five or sex uniformed men ran into the market, jolting the previously calm afternoon into a place that was on high alert. Several blurry-looking figures cut across and upwards, leaping off stalls into the scaffolding of a construction site high above the city.

 

As if on cue, hostile Dream Eaters popped out of the air in bursts of purple-black energy. Their ringleader was an enormous elephant that, as it landed, trumpeted angrily and began to smash apart stalls.

 

The weight of the Keyblade was familiar to Kairi now so that when it appeared in her hands, it no longer felt quite as heavy as it did before. She leapt at a twirling, cactus-shaped monster with a downward slash, knocking it back. Her own Dream-Eaters began to sling spells at the larger Dream Eater to slow it down. All around her, the market was in shambles, with people grabbing whatever they could and running out. The guards, though, seemed to pursue their target, so much so that their gazes remained suspicious, even as she cleared out the rest of the monsters.

 

“You there,” snapped a guard, as soon as Kairi’s attention turned away from the scen to survey how much damage had been done. “Were you one of these street rats’ accomplices?”

 

“I—er…” Kairi stammered. Jasmine had never quite liked the men her father kept in the palace to keep her safe, and now she was getting a crash course on exactly why. “….No? What the heck is a street rat?” Her voice grew indignant.

 

Another guard cut in. “She’s got to be. I saw those creatures wrecking proerty. That weapon’s probably controlling them” From the way that every single pair of guardsmens’ eyes were now trained on Kairi, it looked as if her chances of lying her way out were slim. “One even made off with an armload of weapons!”

 

Taking a hint that she had a ticket to jail if she didn’t act fast, Kairi bounded towards the wall and leapt towards it. As her shoes struck the solid sandstone, she felt her body lighten and spring up, gliding upwards past the guards and onto an awning. She dug in her heels, and felt the fabric give in a way she’d needed it to. The awning bounced back up with a force stronger than she thought, sending her flying past rooftops with a startled yelp.

 

When she’d landed, it was on a square rooftop that, at the very least, seemed to be in a secluded corner that would buy a little time. Catching her breath, Kairi looked around, and found nothing in the nook save a few jars, scraps of wood, and rolls of cloth. It was an area where a shop or house would’ve stored things occasionally, and nothing more.

 

Then, she saw the many pairs of eyes staring at her, as she made eye contact with about a half dozen street children. Looking at the room once again revealed more answers. Bread was scattered about crates and battered tables. Blanket rolls were shoved into the far side of the broken-down house.

 

She was wrong. This was a place where children with no homes had lived and slept.

 

The sound of a sharp whistle cut into Kairi’s thoughts. Suddenly, a taller girl was bidding the children to scatter off in different directions.She wore a plain brown hood over her hair, and was gesturing off into different rooftops. This had been an escape plan they had gone over.

 

When the girl turned around, Kairi’s eyes widened.

 

“Jasmine?” She frowned. “What are you doing out here?”

 

= = 

 

The Princess of Agrabah was dressed in an old, worn cloak, and peered at Kairi with the same level of friendliness that the guards had. Fortunately, Jasmine lacked a sword or a batallion of men to send after her.

 

“I don’t know how you know,” hissed the Princess quietly, “But you’d better come this way.” She pulled her hood over her head, and motioned for Kairi to follow her. “These construction areas are filling up with monsters. Be careful”

 

“Couldn’t you sic your tiger on them?” asked Kairi, grinning slightly. If this version of the Princess was anything like the one she’d known, she would have fretted about the tiger like it was a kitten.

 

“How did you know I had a tiger?”

 

Kairi was a firm believer that if someone owned a jungle cat that was likely illegal to domesticate in other places, they needed to prove it. The problem was, the Dreaming Worlds likely erased whatever conversations the had had about Rajah.

 

“You have er…uh….. a…tiger-owner-y quality about you?” She tried weaving the lie together, but knew right away that it didn’t work. Which was probably why that task was best left to people like Namine.

 

But in honesty, there remained a part of Kairi that still really, really wanted to see a tiger in person.

 

“Well, I can count on Rajah to take out anyone that acts funny at the palace, but he’s not really made for running around the city,” retorted the other girl. She glanced at the Keyblade in Kairi’s hands “Looks like nothing stops the monsters for good except something like that.”

 

“Why leave the palace?” asked Kairi. “If it’s safer there for you, then why risk it?” That was the question, for Jasmine risked being pursued by guards seeking to keep her inside, as well as the dangers that lurked outside.

 

“I like it so much better out here,” Jasmine stretched her legs out on a wooden crate in front of her, grinning widely in a way that Kairi guessed she wasn’t permitted to do very often.

 

After all, Jhe had never sat or walked about like that in front of other Princesses, and appeared far more polite and closed-off. But at home, even when she wasn’t free, Jasmine was so much more comfortable than she seemed.“I can see the city so closely, and meet up with a boy that I’ve been getting to know. You know, Princesses can’t do that, but maybe they should.”

 

“And,” added Jasmine, “I feel like I can do something to protect it when I bring bread and clothes.” She pointed to a small bundle in her arms that was half-empty. Evidently, the children had already trusted her.

 

“Sounds like a good way to learn how to be a good Queen,” Kairi agreed. It pained her a little, to see someone who wanted to get out and adventure without a care in the world. “What’s the trouble in doing that?”

 

“My father is stubborn,” Jasmine had the reply ready. “And his advisor is worse. The former, I can bend the rules with. But Jafar’s another type of trouble. And that’s why I need to get out of the city tonight.” She looked over Kairi and her keyblade, as if a new, brilliant idea was clicking together.

 

“You’re leaving the city?” Kairi looked out past the overview, then back at Jasmine in confusion. “Why?”

 

Jasmine held up her hands defensively. “Jafar…that man I was talking about…he’s looking for a relic in the desert. He’ll use it to do nothing but destroy.”Her voice shook at the mention of the man.

 

“No one believes me, but I have to do _something_. If he gets his hands on it, who knows what will happen?”

 

That type of story echoed a sharp pain that Kairi felt with an unsettling familiarity, as her fingers curled into a fist reflexively. Whatever magical weapon it was, and whatever Jafar intended, it had to be something that had devastating capabilities, and something he would stop at nothing to get. Such was the way that men like that worked, whether they wielded magic or brute force or the powers of a Keyblade wielder.

 

Was this the conviction that Yen Sid had wanted her to build? Deciding to help was an easy question. But any choice to do so was never an easy commitment.

 

“I want to help you, Jasmine.” she said. “Let’s go find what you need to find before he does. Which way to your relic?”


	2. Chapter 2

In Agrabah’s deserts there lay a lamp that held the potential for great magic, but so too did it hold the potential for great ruin. The Organization had known about the power of the lamp, and had sent scouts to study its magic, even when it had left the hands of the diamond in the rough that had first stumbled upon it.

 

In Dreams, the sands had shifted back to when the lamp was but a rumor, and the princess still yearning for life outside her castle. But with a Key at her side, she had decided on a different path. The girl with the Key, still taking her tentative steps out into a test that would forge her into a master, had a trial that would test not only her fortitude, but also her heart.

 

= =

 

Contrary to a song Kairi had heard in the bazaar earlier, Arabian nights were drastically colder than days. Luckily enough, there were warm, cuddly Dream Eaters to hold onto as they crossed the sands. The desert had cooled rapidly at dusk and nightfall. Somewhere out there, a cave hiding the treasure they were seeking out lay in wait, and Kairi had imagined it taking a number of forms. Some kind of amulet, perhaps. Or a Weapon.

 

First, they needed to get past the mouth of a tiger, which served as the entrance to the cave where the relic was kept. Simple enough, even if there were fangs carved from stone that threatened to skewer anyone that wasn’t careful.

 

Oddly enough, there was a rope tied to one of the tiger’s teeth, which dangled off into an abyss that seemed to stretch downwards into a cavern much larger than it had looked from the outside.

 

Kairi and Jasmine exchanged pointed looks. Someone else had tried to get in already. Which meant that they didn’t have much time to search.

 

Which meant that it was time to make a necessary leap.

 

“Watch out for the fangs!” was the advice she heard from below, once Agrabah’s princess had gotten up and was peering up from a ledge just perched over a chasm that stretched far below the shifting sands. Her heart racing, Kairi followed

 

“You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?” she asked, breathing heavily as Jasmine pried a torch off the side of a wall in the lower chambers of the cave. “Escaping to go treasure-hunting for something outside of the palace.” It was an exciting prospect, and she couldn’t blame the other girl. 

 

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” Jasmine hid a slight smile, but there was an undiable spring in her step that there hadn’t been in the city. She gestured forward. When Alice and Belle spoke of venturing out from their homes, Jasmine had stayed sullen and silent, likely wanting to do the same and have just as good a story to share. That had always been a moment that Kairi related to for a long time, until she couldnt’ do anything but step forward on her own.

 

Below her feet, Kairi heard the slow, heavy grind of stone slabs moving against one another. As they descended further, she saw the dark-colored rock formations of the upper cavern give way to the interior of an ancient temple colored in the same sunset colors of the desert. Something older than either of them, and perhaps as old as the world itself governed the rules of the cave’s depths.

 

Not all the rules had been suspended, however.“Monsters!” Jasmine suddenly exclaimed, and pointed towards the Lion-like creatures that seemed to teleport out from the walls.

 

“They better stay back if they know what’s good for them” Kairi drew her keyblade, facing the Nightmares as she had done so countless times before. “Keep yourself safe. They won’t be the only ones lurking around here.”

 

= = =

 

Piles of gold that towered over them seemed to stretch to the ceiling, shining so brightly that Kairi wasn’t quite sure she could make direct eye contact. It looked like something out of a pirate’s hoard that her mother would have read about out of a storybook. It was no wonder that traps, monsters and twisting paths had hidden the cave away so well.

 

Jasmine, however, was picking over the piles of treasure with a frustrated expression. 

 

“Do you think your relic hiding under all this, um…wealth?” She ran a hand through a few coins, and came away with a gaudy-looking necklace studded with gems that looked like it weighed more than the keyblade. After attempting to lift it up several times, Kairi shook her head and let the edge of the necklace drop away, dusting her hands off.

 

“I don’t think so,” Jasmine rolled a large, pearl-studded shield out of the way and peered behind it, then turned around and shook her head. “It’s worth more than anything in this cave, I’d wager. So it’s probably hidden somewhere by itself.”

 

“For someone so sheltered, you know your magical artifacts.”

 

“I have my ears around the palce,” grinned the Princess. “Wait…is this what I think it is?”

 

Kairi watched her kneel in delighted surprise at what looked to be a plain, purple-and-red carpet. It had a thick layer of dust, so much so that Jasmine coughed loudly as she brushed some of it off. But as she cleaned up the carpet, small sparks rose from it. Then one of the worn tassels began to wiggle a little. Then, it began to hover off the ground, with Agrabah’s princess on it, steering the carpet this way and that. As she tested the treasure, Kairi looked over at the corner of the cave. There, on an unassuming but separate pedestal, was a small brass oil lamp that looked abandoned.

 

“Hmm, what if….”

 

But as Kairi approached, she heard the unmistakable sound of a bolt of energy. Countless times, it had worried her, because that sound had meant someone taking her away from her friends, and in the past, it had come when she couldn’t protect herself.

 

It was the sound of the Organization, and reaching out from it was a gloved hand, which reached towards the handle of the lamp. If there was any indication that the hooded Nobody saw Kairi or Jasmine, they didn’t show it.

 

“Don’t you dare!” Kairi snapped, and leapt out at the Nobody to strike from above. Her Keyblade sent sparks flying as it struck the weapon of her foe, who leapt back. When Kairi looked back at the pedestal, it was empty.

 

The Organization member was breathing heavily, but rose determinately, lamp in one hand and keyblade in the other. The key they wielded was silver with a yellow handle— the very same key that Sora carried, and the key that had been missing ever since he had vanished.

 

“No….this can’t…who are you?!”If the Dreaming Worlds were going to toy with her once more using someone that took his form, then she was done with pleasantries and playing nice in the Dreamign Worlds. Magic crackled into Kairi’s keyblade as she rounded back, sending the strongest wind spell she knew towards the thief.

 

As the Aeroga spell struck its target, blew aside the hood of the mysterious assailant, and at last Kairi received her answer. A shock of black hair framed a face that looked remarkably like hers.

 

“…Xion?”


	3. Chapter 3

 

 

There were two, maybe three possibilities when it came to the identity of someone wearing the cloak of the Organization that wielded a keyblade. King Mickey was out of the picture, simply because the person standing before her didn’t have cute little rounded ears.

 

One was Roxas, who didn’t seem too angry when Kairi had spoken to him. But according to Sora, he had fought with an intensity that seemed unparalleled. Even someone as easy-going as Sora seemed shaken up by the fight for some time afterwards.

 

The second had been Riku. But for one reason or another, he’d never liked the idea of using the silver-and-gold Kingdom Key. “Just wasn’t the one I was meant to wield,” he had said, and didn’t add much more.All Kairi knew that it hadn’t been the easiest of roads to have walked.

 

The third was Xion, who now stood before her, holding some kind of secret.

 

As far as Kairi had known, Xion and Roxas had defected the Organization for good in the Waking World. They hadn’t spoken much, but Xion always looked eerily familiar, and bore a resemblance to her that Kairi could never quite able to figure out. Soon after, she had decided to take the training of a Keyblade Master as well, quiet and determined where Kairi was optimistic, saying whatever came to mind first.

 

Standing now before her now, Xion’s eyes had none of the kindness to them and were overcast with a glassy, distant look. Once before, Kairi had seen the fighting stance in the hooded figure as they crossed paths in the Keyblade Graveyard. As she did then, Xion held her Keyblade with the seriousness of someone who was charging into battle. But now, there was a strange, automatic quality to her movements, and a purple-colored smoke emanated from her in dark-colored flakes.

 

“Xion, what’s going on? …What are you doing?!” she took a tentative step forward, and the Nobody reflexively lunged forwards, locking blades with an angry, wordless snarl.

 

Kairi’s heartbeat began to race, as if they were being watched by something else far more dangerous than what she had expected. The next steps she took would change the course of everything.

 

“You can’t have that lamp,” she declared, and readied a fire spell that blasted Xion backwards. That much needed to be said, no matter how the standoff ended.“It belongs to Agrabah. Give it back.”

 

“No,,” Xion cradled the lamp against her side. “I need it,” Her words were low and harsh, and she clutched little brass relic as if it would disappear if it left her hands.

 

“Why do you want something like this so badly?” 

 

“Why do you need to know?!” In a swirl of darkness, Xion vanished, then reappeared to strike Kairi with the blunt side of the Keyblade. Pain flared out in the crook of her shoulder, and she shifted away to reach for the lamp, only to have the Nobody pull it away at the last second. She threw it up in the air in a gleaming, golden arc, and as Kairi looked up, closed in and struck hard with the Keyblade.

 

Tumbling backwards, Kairi rebounded, only to see the Nobody catch the lamp with a slight grin on her face.

 

She grinned back.

 

“Well, this is an object that grants wishes, isn’t it?” Everything, thankfully, seemed to be in order, and once again there was a chance to find an opening and attack once more.

 

“So surely you have to have something you’re wishing for. Something that you’d do _anything_ for.” Kairi realized suddenly that she’d unconsciously added an Axel-like air of certainty into her words, just to make sure that she’d gotten the point across. He had done it to distract, and to taunt attention away at times, and it was a strategy worth trying, at the very least.

 

“I think it’s obvious what I was looking for, don’t you?” This time, more words tumbled from the other girl like stones into a stream, clear but remaining just out of reach. “You wouldn’t know anything about what I’m looking for.”

 

“Try me.” Overhead, Kairi peered over at the edge of the cave, where the familiar tassels of a carpet peeked out from a nearby pile of coins.

 

Jasmine was leaning over the side of the carpet, and cocked her head over to the side, a silent gesture towards Xion. She held up her hand, and showed that she held a gemstone the size of a fist. Kairi nodded quickly, and moved to the side. The carpet swooped over piles of treasure, piloted by the princess at the helm.

 

With asurprisingly quick overhand, Jasmine lobbed the gem as hard as she could, striking Xion aside the head with perfect aim.

 

“When’d you learn that?” Kairi hopped aboard the flying carpet as they swooped away from another attack.

 

“You pick up things from street kids,” answered Jasmine, who looked to check to see where Xion had gone. The other girl was reeling, but still held onto their prize. “Back down you go.” She sent the carpet into a downward fall, and from its surface, Kairi tumbled towards the treasure-platform, landing in a crouched stance. She held her Keyblade aloft, so that it crossed the Nobody’s neck.

 

This time, when Xion looked up to meet Kairi’s gaze, her eyes were a great deal clearer before, and the dark fire that circled her had ebbed slightly. Eyes the same color, and a face that could have been a match for her expression the moments she thought everything had been lost stared back.

 

“Fine,” she answered. “I wanted to make a wish for my friends.”

 

At the admission, her voice broke, and the statement she uttered made everything around them not matter quite as much. It didn’t matter if the Xion standing before Kairi was real or not, or if she was lying or saying something true to her heart. “I want some way to know I’m not going to lose them.”

 

And once again, Xion re-summoned the keyblade and stood, holding the lamp and her wishes close.

 

It was harder to fight someone who had the same convictions that you did, down to the dot. But when you could do something for them, things became much easier.

 

Jasmine flew lower on the carpet with a questioning look.

 

“I know about what she’s wished for,” Kairi said to her.

 

“You don’t need that lamp,” She turned to Xion. Emotions welled up— ones that threatened tears. But this wasn’t about anyone else at the moment.

 

“There’s something that I need to tell you, Xion.” Images of trainings where Axel was shaken by soething he couldn’t quite place floodded back. On each of those occasions, Kairi had been worried sick, searching out the connections that she needed to make to finish the story that none of them had the answers to. But now, she held answers to pass on.

 

“You need to know that you’ve always had friends waiting for you. Even if they were far away or their minds were changed, they knew…” It was something that Kairi almost didn’t believe herself, had she not seen it. “Xion…Axel and Roxas wanted you to come back every single day that you were gone.”

 

“How would you know?!” Again, Xion rushed and struck hard, but this time, Kairi parried the blow, a confidence entering her movements that came with the certainty of the answers she could give.

 

“Axel would tell me stories about the Organization, and even though there was a space in the times he shared with Roxas….” Sparks that resembled stars flew out as the keyblades clashed together in a cacophany of metal and energy. “He made that space because he knew you were in those memories, even if that memory wasn’t there.”

 

At the recollection, tears clouded Kairi’s eyes, because everything seemed to blur together— bitter memories for the girl she had just started to know, and the weight of the memories of the person she had lost. At last, she ran forward, and heard the contact of her keyblade striking something metal once more.

 

In a small golden arc, the lamp fell out of Xion’s reach, bouncing off the carpet to roll somewhere deeper in the cave.If she’d noticed or minded, she didn’t show it at all. Instead, the dark-haried girl looked to be taking her time thinking the words over, and closed her eyes with a small smile.

 

Suddenly, a rumble ran throughout the course of the Cave of Wonders, and rubble— small at first, but increasing in size, began to fall from the ceilings. Soon, fixtures and pillars were falling apart, creating ruins in an instant where there had once been a sumptuous, gold-laden treasury. It was a sign against greed, or whatever the mechanisms that were laid down had been meant to punish.

 

“We have to get going. There’s no time to get the lamp!” Jasmine slid as close as she could, and reached out her hand to pull Kairi up. “Are you okay?”

 

“Had to rellive through some extremely upsetting things, but otherwise ready to go. Cmon’!” This time, when Xion looked up, her eyes were clear. She looked fine, albeit disorented from something that had taken her consciousness for a little while. But as Xion looked at Kairi once more, she nodded, and then boarded the flying carpet for their way out.

 

= = =

 

“That….hadn’t gone how Ithought it was going to go,” Aladdin gasped, glancing around the desert. With him was Abu and the Genie, who looked pleased to demonstrate his abilities. His trip into the Cave of Wonders had mostly been hiding from a fight that broke out, and in the din of what had happened and the trap triggered by the strange-looking girls, he had taken the opportunity to find what Jafar needed. But two things had been out of the ordinary.

 

“Well, get used to it, buddy. Your life’s going to go a lot differently than you thought each and every day, untilyoufinishusingupyourwishestermsandconditionsmayapply,” the Genie finished the last words in the form of a besuited man with a briefcase, reading off a list with very small printed words “Life is going to feel like a dream from today on out!” 

 

= =

 

“The last thing I remember,” Xion said, “was someone grabbing my hand and saying that I needed to get ‘reprogrammed.’” She made a face, and slumped forwards in frustration. “Nothing from the exam was clear, and I felt…stuck. Like I did when I was in the Organization.”

 

They were safely back within the city walls, in the same nook where Kairi had first run into Jasmine and the street-children. The very eventful night had almost passed, and at last, things were quieting down.

 

“What do you remember about the person that grabbed you?”

 

“Hooded.” Xion gestured to the coat. “Tall. But they didn’t seem real, almost. Like they were running off a…computer program.” Her eyes widened. “Kairi, what if…”

 

Kairi shook her head, looking over to Jasmine, who looked suspicious. “Let’s chat about this later.” She turned to face the princess, and frowned. “That relic…I’m sorry that it’s slipped away like that.” Though their future was safer, Agrabah—even if it was a dream— was left on more uncertain terms.

 

“Don’t worry about it,” Jasmine shrugged. “I have a feeling that it didn’t get into Jafar’s hands.” She then patted the flying carpet, which reached out its tassels and gave her a high five. “And I think it’s nice that I was able to find another relic. I’ll fight,” she said, “even if the lamp isn’t here.”

 

“But you were able to find your sister,” she added, gesturing to Xion and Kairi. “And that’s much more important than treasures.”

 

“Oh, She’s not—” Xion protested.

 

“Yes, definitely.” Kairi elbowed her, with a roll of her eyes at the prospects of explaining the truth. “Couldn’t wait to see her again and get that curse off her.”

 

And for the first time since Kairi had seen her since the otherwise morose day on the beach, Xion laughed. That, Kairi thought, was enough of a reward for a hard-fought completion of another part of her journey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i love explaining to people that xion is not a clone of kairi, or a literal nobody, but a clone of sora’s memories of kairi
> 
> starting the next story in this adventure soon.


End file.
